The Parchment

by Taylor Coffman

Check out this video. A group of artists collaborating to make this in a week of time. Watching this kinda thing will surely lower your blood pressure.

by James Utt

I enjoyed Hamlet 2 the other night.  Even though it’s a comedy about the self-absorption and insecurity of actors — embodied almost too well by Steve Coogan — the movie illustrates some useful principles:

•         Personal stories — like the fight for a father’s approval — are universal stories.
•         Take the risk; don’t let fear hold you back.
•         Creation is more productive and fulfilling than whining.

In the film, Dana Marschz, an actor whose biggest claim to fame is an infomercial for the Jack LaLanne Juicer, has been relegated to teaching drama in an Arizona high school.   After being notified that the principal is killing the arts program, Dana is inspired to save his classes (or go out with a bang) by writing a sequel to Hamlet. Read the rest of this entry »

by James Richter

I’m in Sunriver, OR this week visiting my wife’s family. It’s a gorgeous setting amidst the pines and meadows of the high desert, and I’m surrounded with good company and good food. Yet I’m making an effort to tear myself away from all that for at least two hours every day in order to work on the musical and the audio play. With so many friendly hands to help out with my baby, this is the best chance I’ve had to bear down and work in many weeks.

Coming into this week, I’ve written a little more than 40% of the ghost story and three songs for the musical. By the time I head back to Pasadena on the 19th, I hope to have at least completed Act One of the musical (four more songs) and finished a complete first draft of The Miller’s Ghost. It’s an ambitious workload, but I’ve got large amounts of the work pre-composed in my head, and I always work best when I’ve got a deadline staring me in the face. Read the rest of this entry »

by Ginger Steiner

We had a stab lab today (see Taylor’s blog post, What is this thing called STAB LAB???). We worked on Taylor’s play “Ditch”, a piece that is about a relationship between a man and a woman and their inner struggles to deal with that relationship. I got to read the part of Elizabeth and I got to say a line that really hit home for me: “When does my life actually actually start?”

My birthday is coming up in a few days, so it has got me thinking. A year older, another year wiser, but am I where I thought I would be when I’m thirty…ISH? No! I had so many dreams of what life would be like. A loving marriage to a man who adores me. Shuffling the kids off to baseball practice. A house with a big back yard and maybe a pool, and finally, the family dog that would go on every family trip with us. The whole nine yards. At least that is the path that everyone in my family has seemed to have taken. The generic “Leave it to Beaver” dream. Really looking back, was that my dream or was it just expected that I would have those things since that is what my parents did? What their parents did…and so on?
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by Ryan Mulkay

It’s sometimes the hardest thing to do. Recently I embraced the idea that I was coming up on my one year anniversary of residency in Los Angeles. So far I can say that this town has been good to me—even in the harsh times it is going through. But, I had a thought. In the apartment complex in which I live my roommates and neighbors (6 young men in total) all moved here with a common goal. In one sense or another we moved here to work or perform in the entertainment industry. Though we spend plenty of time together as friends, we had yet to put a project or creative venture into motion. It would only make sense, right? We had all the means and know-how but had not yet put one in motion… Read the rest of this entry »

by Taylor Coffman

Anne Lamott (Photo by mdesive)

So I’ve decided to re-read Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird. I read it in college a couple moons ago, and now seemed a good time to read it again. The first page struck me as she says simply:

“The first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Myron Davis

Women: While growing up in the black church and within a black family, respect was something that was drilled into me. I was surrounded by strong, assertive women who spoke their minds; the men were no slouches either.

Now as a man, I have some amazing female friends. My life would be so different without their love, support, protection and insight. As an artist and observer of the human condition, I have learned so much from them. I’ve learned as they’ve shared their guy problems with me how much of themselves they hide and how often they’ve sought self-worth as women through different relationships, education and careers. Read the rest of this entry »

by James Utt

Titan Arum

I went to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens last month to see the Titan Arum or “Corpse Flower.”  With a bloom reaching six feet in height, this native to Sumatra is considered the world’s largest flower, but it is just as famous for the odor of rotting meat it gives off to attract insects.   Titan Arums can go many years between blossoms so when I found out that one was right here in our own backyard, I hurried to Pasadena to see it.

After a few minutes in a line filled with curious adults and kids, I got to see Titan Arum for myself. It’s about the size of  Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.   It was reaching the end of its short bloom cycle, so instead of decaying flesh, the Titan Arum smelled more like cabbage.  Even without the corpse odor it was still worth it to see something firsthand that I only read about. Read the rest of this entry »

by Ginger Steiner

Crack Dip

So, I got a lot of great comments on my last blog “LA living!” and one major question. “What exactly is Crack dip?”. It is a delightful highly addictive sausage dip that I try to bring to every Mutineer company meeting. I introduced it to the Mutineer family one late night rehearsal for “Lie With Me”. I was just trying to be a good stage manager, making sure my people where fed. So, I brought my crack dip and my chips with a hint of lime and served it to my hungry crew. And, that was it; they were hooked. One bite and they were crack dip junkies.
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by Taylor Coffman

You might be wondering… as am I… what’s next for MTC??? Well in my personal opinion, it could be one of the amazing things percolating in what we MTCer’s call STAB LAB. What started as a workshop for scenes and audition sides has truly evolved into where the magic is happening! (although scenes and audition sides are still more than welcome). Its name came from an email exchange between Jon and me–and, well, my suggestion for calling it STAB LAB was actually half a joke–but it stuck and now there’s no going back. I do admit though it’s a perfect title. Mutineers probably stabbed each other a bunch. And it’s our way of “taking a stab” at new material…
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by Myron Davis

I was walking down the street in my neighborhood and thinking about what I need to be doing to kick my career to the next level as a director-writer-actor. The main answer that came to me was to “be prolific.” What prolific meant to me as I walked was to focus on quantity, not to the exclusion of but with preference over quality. I needed to get my momentum going by just making more mistakes i.e. learning by doing.

When I was living in Queens, NY, I finally made the decision to get comfortable on the guitar. I committed to practicing four hours a night after I got home from work. I remember one night getting home around 1 A.M. from seeing a buddy perform and picking my guitar up to start my 4-hour session. I made some horrible sounds with that guitar, but after a while I started to make “something approaching music.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Jon Cohn

I have long believed that theatre artists were far more successful at their craft when they had the opportunity to experience the world that they live in rather than submerge themselves in rather extensive programs to learn about it.  That’s not to say that training is irrelevant or unimportant–just a feeling that an equal measure of life is a vital supplement to more effectively and accurately observe, reflect, and comment upon the human condition.

Mutineer Theatre Company recently passed its one-year mark.  We are a brand-new non-profit theatre company in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.  We are actively developing multiple original projects that all have the potential to be produced on our stage and at the same time we are strategizing our financial development efforts so that these endeavors can be actualized.  I find that I am tempted by the thought of submerging myself in all of the work that must be done for Mutineer and allow for no other outside activities or distractions.  But then it occurs to me that this would not only be a disservice to our company and to myself as an artist but also to the theatre community at large if I didn’t get out there to see what shows were running.   Read the rest of this entry »